Cooling

The CNPS10X Extreme is Zalman's first conventional tower heatpipe cooler. It weighs a hefty 920 grams, and comes with an integrated fan and fancy fan controller, as well as mounting hardware for all current AMD/Intel sockets, even LGA1156. Is it extreme enough to be competitive with the top models from Thermalright, Scythe and Noctua?

ZEROtherm's CORE92 is a LGA775/1366 compatible CPU cooler equipped with 3 direct-touch heatpipes and an embedded 92mm fan. The combination is interesting as direct-touch heatpipes are proven performers, while center fan designs have never really panned out. Read on to see how it performs against other 92mm coolers.

Do two 92mm fans provide improvements on a tower heatsinks a smidgen smaller than the ones that use a 120mm diameter fan? This is one of the many questions we pose of a new CPU cooler from Cooler Master.

Prolimatech is a relatively new Taiwanese company with only one product: the Megahalems CPU cooler. Despite Prolima's relative obscurity, the Megahalems has been making the rounds at several well-known PC enthusiasts sites and getting excellent marks. There's only one thing left standing between the Megahalems and greatness: a thumbs up from SPCR.

The Thermaltake's BigTyp 14Pro, as its name suggests is a bigger version of the Big Typhoon, sporting longer heatpipes and a 14cm fan. The Big Typhoon at the time of its release was one of the larger heatsinks one could buy, but by modern standards it is rather quaint. Can this updated titan compete with the big boys of today?

The fins of a 9700 tower heatsink get split into two sections to allow a 120mm fan to fit between them. The 9900 looks like the Zalman's last kick at the 9000 series.
Postcript: Zalman CNPS9900 LED Unshrouded added Jan 9, 2009 (page 8)

The SpinQ is one of the most unique CPU coolers designs from a brand that seems to pride itself on wild and whacky heatsinks. The integral 80x85mm blower fan should provide even airflow in a 360 degree arc through the cylindrical radial fins. Does it match the competition?

Baram is a big tower heatsink with all the requisite design elements to make it to the top: A huge number of large thin fins, 10 heatpipes spread nice and even, and staggered fins to minimize win resistance. Can this newcomer take on the established big boys?

Scythe hit a home run for SPCR with the original Ninja heatsink a couple of years ago. Since then, the competition has stiffened, and despite several updates, the Ninja lost some of its luster. Is the Ninja 2 another homer?

It was one of the pioneers in quiet computing, but Zalman's latest product, another shrink of a 3+ year old design, disappoints. The cooling performance is good, but the CNPS9300 AT doesn't win any prizes for acoustics or value.

Noctua's original big tower heatsink underwent some tweaks and mods, enough to earn it an additional letter in its model designation. The newer high pressure NF-P12 fan is one of the changes; others are more subtle, like improved soldering, slightly different dimensions and others Noctua has not detailed. Did they make it a better product? Yes, no doubt about it.

The Zerotherm Zen FZ120 is a conventional, high performance, tower heatsink for CPUs â€” it has four U-shaped heatpipes, tightly packed fins, and a 120mm PWM fan attached via wire clips. It sports a few curves and contours reminiscent of the BTF80/BTF90 "butterfly" coolers (which were quite good)... but the sheer size of the new Zen makes it a more serious contender.

The HR-01 Plus is an improved version of an earlier passive model. It now sports fan clips, and six heatpipes instead of four. With wide fin spacing for minimal airflow resistance, can this tower heatsink challenge the silent leaders?